Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD (Switch)

 

What it's supposed to look like

Well, more Final Fantasy and I pretty much only have one game left besides playing the original games again... and the sequels to XIII on the PS3... or the sequel to IV I got for the Wii, but ease of start and play is really better on the Switch. So it was XV the Pocket edition in HD. I don't have a Playstation 4 or 5 so this was the best way to play it. I read somewhere someone didn't know who this is for, like everyone got a phone that can play this or you got a Playstation. Well, apparently it's for me who don't want to play games on a phone and doesn't have a newer Playstation. So let's wait 5 years until I got around to it.

So basically, you play prince Noctis on his way to his wedding with the lady Lunafreya. With him he has three friends, Gladiolous the muscle, Ignis the smart guy and Prompto the wisecracking one. After getting their car fixed by Cid and Cindy news reach that the Empire have attacked their kingdom and killed Noctis father the king in order to get a ring and crystal. On their journey they bump into the empire's chancellor Ardyn that seems to help them for some reason. Suddenly we start to collecting summons that represents the six gods. I don't know if a lot got missed in the smaller Pocket Edition, but at times I just went with the motions cause I didn't quite get why I did everything.

That goes on until we get to this island republic under the empire's protection where Leviathan lives and Lunafreya is there as well to get the blessing. So after an action packed sequence the beloved are so close to reunite and then... Ardyn shows up and kills Lunafreya. And somehow Ignis got blinded. Some sad moments, the light of day is disappearing and daemons attack the civilians. Collecting the last things and entering the empire's capital to get the crystal they stole. And Ardyn reveals that he is actually immortal and a former king of Noctis kingdom, but he somehow was demonized and turned evil... as said, I don't always follow why things happen. Doesn't matter, Noctis enters the crystal and get Bahamut's blessing and suddenly it has gone 10 years. The world is overrun by daemons and only one city is left standing due to a power generator. Noctis meets up with his friends and they head out to get the throne back from Ardyn. After battling it turns into a one-on-one fight between Noctis and Ardyn. Noctis wins and then I guess he dies since he needed to sacrifice himself to return the light. Doesn't explain how he sits on the throne at the end with Lunafreya. 

Story is passable, gameplay is interesting. You got three weapons to chose from, which I only used the normal sword since it was fast enough. I wonder if they were supposed to have weapon triangle system, but it doesn't seems to be working. You got magic... but you gotta pick it up from power sources and they are one use only. Better using the armitage system were the royal weapons are used for great attacks during a short time. It has a cool-down timer, but it works. Voice acting is good, the graphics are not up to the normal game, and looks a bit like Bravely Default, although they looked better there. There is one funny scene where someone is painting the gang and they use a really high-res picture of the group from the normal version where everyone laughs at how ridiculous it looks. That was kinda funny. Other graphical things people talked about was the food it was life-like, no such thing here. Would have been fun with just a still image of the food. Also, no need to save treasures as all they are for are selling for cash. I got that you used to use it upgrade your weapons, but they simplified it with just being able to buy the things. Fine by me. Also the reason for the magic system is that you needed items so they used the power sources instead. 

Overall, if you can't play it in a normal way it works. Rumours of Switch 2 is high and I would probably get the normal version if they got it as well. 

Update 2025-05-28: Well, now the Switch 2 is just one week away and sign of Final Fantasy XV.

A DnD tale: Tomb of Annihilation - The Oracle (Part 2)

 

"Granddaughter, it's a foreign mirror

Taken from the jungle by crime!"

The adventure continues. After two of my sisters mentioned that they thought the adventure should be shorter I had to counter that with more setting up the game. So I spent a whole Sunday rolling dice to simulate the first 27 days for them to reach Orolonga and let me tell you, I haven't rolled that bad in ages. Several days where lost for my rolling of a 1 on the navigation skill forcing them to crash the boats in the rivers getting stuck, getting lost in the jungle and actually causing a tropical storm. And then I found out that I've mixed up Nangalore with Orulonga so I had to backtrack and guess how the travels would have gone. AND I missed that you are supposed to roll for morning, midday and night for encounters. So they only got attacked one night by ghouls. Which they handled with ease with a fireball and some use of the light sword. 

Anyway, they reach Orulonga and has to figure out the secret of the ziggurat. They won't even climb the first stairs. They look for footprints and since they haven't meet Artus Cimber and Dragonbait so I have them being with the naga, so they of course have gone trough the trails. And since Freja have talk with plants, they find out they took the black and purple orchids without meeting the Chwinga. So they do the same, to the flowers great terror, and clears the first trail. The second trail they actually begin doing things the book have foreseen, like Immeral first trying to bypass it by running up the stairs, followed by a shadow step. Both fail. And now they look around and find the second Chwinga that have the red feather so they go back and search around to find them and then run up the second pair of stairs, clearing the second trail.

This time they encounters the POISONOUS snakes that block the path. After trying to charm them to no avail, they look for another Chwinga, find the one that eats the snake and crawls past the other snakes. And then they have reached the top and enters the shrine to speak to the guardian naga inside. Artus and Dragonbait is already here asking about Mezro, the lost city and they get the answer that it will only appear again if Ras Nsi, the general of ancient time is gone and his wherabout is in Omu. Then it's our heroes turn and they are told that the rod piece they are looking for is in Omu and where that it. They also get the location for the crashed airship the Star Goddess. Since it's fairly close they decide to continue towards it. It takes them 10 days to reach it after some time getting lost in the jungle and as they approach they are called by the captain of the airship for help. Below the crashed airship a couple of ghouls are lurking so Destinova throws a fireball while Artus and Freya shots arrows on the two lasting ghouls. Freja, Dragonbait, Artus, Hope and Immeral climbs up to help the survivors down, but the trees begin rumbling and three girallon zombies comes rushing through the jungle on the path to fight our heroes. Hope rushes first and uses her sun sword to burn the first girallon. And then it makes it's five attacks, which she wasn't prepared for. Then Artus just takes off his glove and uses a cone of cold on all three, killing the first one and badly injuring the other two. Dragonbait follows with an attack with his sword, killing the other one with two strikes. Then Immeral attacks the final one until it falls down and die.

After rescuing the crew of the ship they start fixing the ship up. And for two days straight they have a tropical storm so they mend the blimp during that, after 4 days the crew have regained their strength after being without of food for several days and they fix it up and 10 days later sails back to Port Nyanzaru to fix the last bits, bunker up with more rations and bug salves. And here we ended the session. Next time they either get to Omu or get drifted out to other areas of interest. Someone mentioned the ideas of fighting the red dragon near the Dwarven area, the Terrorfolk home at Firefinger and obviously the gargoyles attack around Omu. Need to find some damn rules about aerial combat though. 

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion (Switch)

To the promised land

So as of writing everyone else is playing and talking about Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth which made me get some cravings to return to that world, but since I don't have a Playstation 5 or a decent computer I had to go to the only option left without replaying the original game, and that is playing the remake of the PSP prequel that I have had on a shelf for 2 years. 

So that's what I did. It starts like the original Final Fantasy VII, on a train inbound to a Mako reactor and a soldier jumping of at the station fighting Shrinra soldiers. In this game you play as Zack Fair, the guy Cloud impersonated in the original game and Aeriths boyfriend to be. It's a simulation of a Wutai attack where they have taken uniforms from Shinra and you are supposed to stop them before they blow up the reactor. Here you meet your instructor Angeal. The training is cut short when Zack gets beaten up by Sephiroth. Then it's off to Wutai as the war is still going on and you encounter Yuffie before fighting the boss, but afterwards Angeal disappears. And then you are sent out to look into his hometown with the Turk leader Tseng that Sephiroth kills in the temple with the black materia. There it is revealed that Angeal and another of the super SOLDIERS Genesis came from the same village and that Genesis have, for some reason sprouted wings like Sephiroth in his final form.

After that it gets to stop several attacks by Genesis that works with a scientist called Hollander that wants revenge when Hojo took his promotion so to speak. It culminates with Zack killing Angeal and capturing Hollander, who is rescued by what it seems to be the director of SOLDIER that have been financing Hollander. For revenge it is stated, but revenge for what isn't really stated I get, unless I missed it by not playing through all missions (I stopped at around 50%). Meanwhile Zack met Aerith and Cloud and after giving Aerith the idea to sell flowers Cload and Zack heds for Nibelheim and pretty much reenacts that parts of the Final Fantasy VII story, but without Cloud being centre stage. Sephiroth goes insane, burns down the village and Cloud is the one that finally offs him from the reactor. Zack and Cloud gets captured by Hojo that experiments on them, Zack escapes and brings Cloud with them, They get help from one of Zacks friends in the Turks, a girl I haven't seen before. After a run around Zack faces of Genesis in the bombed out village Angeal and him came from so defeating him it pretty much returns to what I known before. They reach the outskirts of Midgar, but the Shinra army catches up with them. Zack makes a last stand killing them all, but dies from his wounds, giving the buster sword to Cloud. And it ends with Aerith selling her flowers and a train pulling up near the Mako reactor with Cloud atop it. The game bookending it self and straight up tells us that the story continues in Final Fantasy VII.

Gameplay wise it's more of an action RPG. You equip up to three accessories and six materia that gives you different attacks and enhances stats or effects. Like the original the materia levels up, but I assume it's random like the normal level ups. You have a three wheeled spinner that constantly spin and if you get 777 you get a level up, I think 444 is materia level up. At times you can get three characters and it will give you a special attack and might trigger a summon that also have to align on the wheel. Sceptical in the beginning, but as soon I learned that the level ups isn't completely random (the more monster you kills, the higher a hidden EXP value goes and the possibility for a guaranteed 777 goes up). Feels a lot better than a certain game that also talked about randomness in their level ups.

Overall, I found it enjoyable. The music when they hint at the original songs are great, it's fun seeing locals and people you recognise from the original game, but I quickly realised that people I didn't recognised would probably die. Imagine my surprise that the girl Turk seemed to survive. When I got used to the gameplay it was rather ok. Would have preferred more JRPG elements to be honest, and I expected at least one more materia slot. Never got the idea around materia combining so never bothered. Only took me something like 30 hours and the game ends on a new game+ save so I can replay it with levels and most equipment intact. I guess I have to redo all the missions, but since I was level 50 and with some mastered materia it would be a piece of cake to get back, if a bit tiresome at some enemies. Got craving to play the remakes of Final Fantasy VII, hopefully they release them for the Switch 2 or something (unless it's a freaking cloud version).

Update 2025-04-28: And my prayer's were answered, but the monkey's paw curled its finger with the invention of Game Key Cards. At least it isn't a cloud version, right?

Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch)

 

All the worlds a stage!

Newest Princess Peach game and a short game at that. My niece got it as well when she turned 8 and seemed to like it. At that time I still hadn't picked up my copy which I did the day after. Got to play it a week after when I finished up the Dragon Quest Monster game.

So the story is that Peach wanted to go to the theater, but after arriving a body-less "sorceress" named Madam Grape and the Sour bunch seals of the the theater with Peach and a lot of locals called Sparklas (I think). So she has to go through each play to get 10 different costumes that allows her to master different vocations like some bakery chef, a kung fu master, swordsman (or woman in this case), ninja, detective, superhero like Iron Man, a cowgirl, master thief, figure skater and a mermaid... maybe not a vocation, but still?

There's three stages per costume, first you begin with Peach and something like half-way through you get the costume and learns the rope. The second stage you are dressed from the start and the third stage is rescuing the one that the costume was based on. There's 5 floors and a basement and 5 bosses to beat. In every stage there is Sparkle gems to collect and a costume for Peach and her friend for the adventure, Stella. After beating the game you can find hide and seek ninjas in every stage and refight the bosses and try getting sparkle gems from the bosses by clearing some conditions, like take no damage, use minimal of resources and such. Each floor also has a rehearsal stage that allows you to do certain costume segments to get a high score, like Swordsman and Kung Fu Master beating up enemies without taking damage, the master thief gliding and collect jewels during an obstacle course and the superhero rescuing civilians from aliens. 

I did most things and it took something like 24 hours. Only thing left is getting the sparkle gems from the bosses. Two cleared in full, one with one condition left and two where I got to get everything. The gems is then used to buy decorating stuff in the theater. Only one thing left. Final boss is interesting since you "get" a new costume called Radiant Peach which turns the battle into a shoot'em'up. I also get that the joke is that Peach is radiant like a star since she's the star of the game (and in universe the plays). 

You would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love her and despair!

Now, I found it rather enjoyable the time I played it. There where some issues like that the nature of the stages dragged a bit if you replayed them a lot to get everything. You can't skip in-game cutscenes so it drags a bit, the movie like scenes you can skip and you can watch them whenever you like. Wished you could jump around the stages a bit easier. The game also took a long time loading the stages for some reason. And the final nitpick is that the dress costumes you can buy and get. Most of them look the damn same, in that they are white and pink for the most of it. They have different designs, but more colors wouldn't be bad. Really, the most interesting dresses are the bosses since then you get a different color. And the detective costume since it alone is brown to suit the Sherlock Holmes look. 

I heard some people compare it to Balan Wonderworld that have the same costume idea, but I guess it's much less costumes here and it only affects the stages they are in. In Balan I got the impression you choose which costumes to use and that differentiated the game play. Of course I haven't played Balan and with the reviews I will probably never do it. I thought going in that this game would be get the costumes and choose what to use and such. 

Overall, fun game. Feels like it could be in the Paper Mario Universe with the stage feeling and such. Will I play it again? Maybe not, I'm not that interested in playing the bosses until I master the game and there is no reward what I could see for doing it. I wonder if they use this to test certain ideas for games. The super hero one gave me vibes of Wonderful 101 and I would have liked more Kung Fu Master, Master Thief and Detective. I can skip Mermaid and Skater.

The last thing I saw before playing this was that the director is actually the same director who made Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the Nintendo 64 and you know I like that game. The ninja stages made me think of that and still wait for the Mystical Ninja collection Konami has to be working on.

Dragon Quest Monster: The Dark Prince (Switch)

 

Missed opportunity to not have the one-eyed monster behind the age rating.

Continued with the Dragon Quest games and it was part of the Dragon Quest Monster spin-off series. I haven't played the other games in this particular series. It's a side-story for the 4th game in the main series and chronicles the story of Psaro the Manslayer, the main bad guy from that game. It starts with him as a kid as the second son to Randolfo the Tyrant and his human mother dying. He gets too Nadiria to get help to his mother, but Randolfo instead curses him to not be able to hurt monsters, but Psaro is saved by the Zenithian dragon that tells him that his mother has died. Psaro returns to the world and is told by dwarfs how to wrangle monsters so that they can help him fight other monsters since he himself couldn't do it. After entering a tournament he meets Rose, the elven girl who cries ruby tears and saves her from the slavers. And together they set out to be the very best, like no ones ever known.

They travel across the lands of Nadiria and meet Toilen Trouble, a human pickpocket that joins you. You also gets help from an unknown master that push you on. The different circles lead to different stories, like the fire circle tells the story of the Brimstone Boys as they are trying to resurrect a fire bird god from the volcano that you gotta stop, the futuresque city tells of Sir Percival that stood guard outside Rose's tower that you first beat up and then help depose of the mad king sitting at the top. And at times we shift back to the main story of the main game. You watch the destruction of the Chosen's village at the hands of Dolph the Destroyer, your older brother, the kidnapping of Rose and the awakening of Estark. The kidnapping shows the bad ending where you plays out the original ending of the main game where the Chosen cuts of your every limb and you become more and more gruesome. It is undone by Toilen having stolen the Sands of Time and brings you back to the moment where the choice was finding the real Rose after the kidnapping. It also tells us that the master behind you, Aamon was the one behind the kidnapping and this tells the story from the main game when Aamon lured Psaro into the war with humankind... and incidentally become the main bad guy in the post-game content for the DS version of the game. 

With all that Psaro challenges his father after the Chosen helped defeating Dolph. An intense battle as my main team fell one by one, except my trusty Dark Slime Boomph which I had dumped a lot of seeds on. Using my healing herbs I held him alive until he did the final strike and felled Randolfo the Tyrant. Psaro don't take the throne and leaves. The gang is picked up by the Zenithian Dragon that returns them home. Credits roll. The game continues in the post-game with the third Estark demon that hides in Whisper Wood so you go there with the youngest brother Ludo. I didn't beat him so I quit the game for now.

Overall a fun game. It's basically Pokemon, but you gotta breed them to better and better versions. I don't like the amount of choices you had and it was just flukes that made me realize that the Dark Slimes breath attack actually hurts (and kills) Liquid Metal Slimes in one attack so I began farming that to keep my main team somewhere around 40-70, wish I had upgraded the healer slime I used to get Omniheal a lot sooner. So basically brute forced my way through it. I got that a higher grade meant better monsters, and a bred monster is better than a caught one due to getting more skill points. But hey, it's finished. Small nitpicks is like why can't I sort the bestiary after new entries? It annoys me that they show there is, but you have to manually look through the damn book over and over since the red dot can meld into the monsters.

Dragon Quest Treasure (Switch)

 

We're gonna have a land of our own, Plutonia!

While writing this it's Monday after the news broke that Akira Toriyama had passed away so I obviously went into some kind of Dragon Quest mode. I thought of replaying XI again, but in 2D the whole way, but I didn't feel for putting in another 100 hours. I got Dragon Quest Monster for the Switch, but then I recalled I had Dragon Quest Treasure which I started when I got it back in 2022, but dropped off after something like 17 hours into the game. So 5 hours later I was finished with the main quest and could call it quits.

Story is a prequel to XI where Erik (the thief from XI) and his sister Mia as kids rescues some strange animals the pirate vikings captured, a flying pig and a flying cat. They show them an island where two daggers exist, the siblings take one dagger each and with it they can understand the creatures that wants the siblings help in order to find the 7 stones so that they can be un-cursed by the gods and return to heaven.

So you begin by finding an abandoned train station that you fix and with the train it take you to the railway headquarters in the middle between the floating islands. You name your island and I chose Plutonia like the song from Albert Bouchards album Imaginos II. Then it's off finding treasures, fight monster, recruit monsters, restore more train stations and find more islands to travel to in search of the seven treasures of the old dragons. There's gangs of treasure hunters fighting you at every turn, big monsters, deep dungeons and an evil pirate captain that stand in your ways. And the treasure you find is all connected to the history of Dragon Quest, either items from the games, characters from the game or things like playing cards from our world. 

It was a fun game really, more hack'n'slash than an rpg, but it works. Still, after getting 4 of the main treasures I just tuned out. The grind got to me. Going place to place wouldn't be so bad if you didn't constantly got a warning after a set amount of time about another rival gang that you either have to fight off or get back to the base so that you can dump your treasures into the vault. But that still isn't enough since then your base can be attacked so you have to fight off the invaders. I just want to explore the islands and take my time! So I probably got a bit burned out. So two years later I just went straight for the final quests to get the 3 remaining treasures and then fought off the pirate captain and watched the credits and then started up the post game and just saved before calling it quits.

It was kinda sad seeing the credits since not only had Toriyama passed away, but this was apparently the last game that the composer Koichi Sugiyama worked on as well. No in memory off in the credits if I didn't miss it. Maybe that is saved for Dragon Quest XII or the remake of Dragon Quest III. A fun distraction and only took me 22 hours as a whole to finish, not 100 %, but I can't be bothered with that. Other games to play.

Finding Paradise (Switch)

Flying high again!

So finally played the sequel to the game "To the Moon". I got more emotional responses out of this one, maybe due to the story resonating more with me than the first game. Same set up as the last one, Eve and Neil is on another mission for the Sigmund Foundation to fulfil a contract. This time it's a Colin Reeds, an aviator that seemed to live happily with wife and kid that you gotta improve his life right before death.

You enter his mind, but instead of linear backtracking you spiral from the most recent memories to the oldest and continuing to the middle of them. You see how his wife kinda is against the idea, but he still insist on getting this service and as you get the oldest memories you see the girl Faye he seems to be friends with. Or rather his only friend. They go to school, they practice instruments in the forrest and she pushes him to go and get flying lessons so he can become a pilot. Meanwhile, after a certain point she disappears. So it seems to open up for that she died or something, but the twist is actually that she is just a part of his imagination that disappeared some time after he meet his wife.

Now, Faye seems to take control of the simulation as she tries to get rid of the scientist in order to preserve herself as well as Colins memories. So after a large episode of fighting Faye in different events Neil, once again, actually comes up with the solution in letting Faye take control and just add a meeting with them again at the end of his life, everything else equal. 

Outside of this you get more about Neil's strange behaviour. It still flashes red at times, but it's explained he takes some pills for some strange reason. He also have tinkered with the mind reading machine and is actually causing some of the problems. He is also discovered by another technician and her and her companion joins him in the end as he work on some secret project that hints that he saved Faye inside the machine and is gonna use her for some reason.

Overall, the story is great. But there is bugs that irritates me to no end. I've had to restart at several times just to get out of soft-locked things and I even had to go into handheld mode in order to get out of certain areas for some reason. It got irritating, lucky the autosave and such allowed me to continue without losing any progress. Almost 5 hours of gameplay so perfect for a lazy Sunday. Apparently I learnt that there is two side stories to this, one is referenced here and the other something like a sequel. Both games isn't on console (and the referenced one came out back in 2024 so it might never be, especially how they say that some stories aren't mean to be told). 

Nier: Automata - The End of YoRHa Edition (Ending A) (Switch)

 

Does Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Picked up Nier: Automata at a sale at the beginning of 2024 and started to play through it. Only heard good things about it and it is made by Platinum Games that made Wonderful 101 and the Bayonetta-series and published by Square Enix. I gathered it's a sequel to a game that is a spinoff to another series, but I've never played any of them. Oh yeah and of course I know the main character 2B from all the p... you know what, maybe I've written too much?

Anyway, the game begins by telling us that mankind have been driven from earth by aliens that built robots attacking them. Mankind have settled on the moon and uses androids to fight their battles to reclaim the earth. The opening begin with our hero 2B on an inflight mission to fight a goliath with several other androids in shells (like in Xenoblade Chronicles X, still want a port and continuation of that game [this of course was written long before they announced the port to Switch]), but one by one they get offed by the robots. She is the only one that survives the raid and as she begins fighting the goliath she is supported by 9S, a scout android compared to her battle android. They defeat the goliath but three more appears so they use their black boxes to create an explosion that take them all out, including 9S and 2B. 

And here they show a bit about the gameplay. If you die, you are generated back into a new body (the same as the old one), and we're back in the bunker. So in story, the androids loses their self and return constantly missing information (technically only when the story demands is since I very much remember what happens until the death) and relearning their bonds with their peers. In this case 2B and 9S. Anyway, they are sent back to recon and help the resistance on earth. They explore and fights robots, in the desert they see a robot... orgy is probably the closest word I can use for what I saw as I lie here in a fetal position. There the robots create a robot that looks like an android that names himself Adam. You fight him, but has to retreat since he is too strong.

Then you fight a robot at an amusement park that looks like an opera singer that captured several YoRHa members. You defeat it and then are helped by a robot named Pascal that leads a village where robots have decoupled from the network that rule the robots. From here I got a feeling it was go here, do that until you are supposed to protect a missile convoy that allows you to again fly in shell, you fight it but has to use one of the cannons to destroy a Godzilla like monster, 9S disappears after the battle so you look for him and find a replica city where you confront Adam again (you already meet again while investigating an alien ship below ground that resurfaced where the aliens where dead, apparently killed by Adam and his brother Eve) that have kidnapped 9S and put him on a cross. You kill Adam and return 9S to the bunker. You are tasked by command to investigate strange behaviour from the robots and joins Pascal as she is on her way to colony of robots in the factory. There the robots seemed to have form a cult and you are taken to their leader that seems to have died so the robots begin killing themselves and tries to take you out as well. You escape with the help of 9S that hacked into the network from the bunker.

Back outside you head to the resistance camp where the robots have gone berserk and began eating the androids. Afterwards a huge boss appears outside the camp which you fight and 9S joins you by crashing a shell into it and then Eve appears from it completely deranged after the loss of his brother. You thwart an attack on Pascal's village and then take the fight to Eve where 9S hack into the network again to severe Eve's connection to the network. After he is killed 9S reveal that he is infected so 2B has to strangle him to stop the corruption from being uploaded to the Bunker. She is about to destroy every single robot, but all the heads of the robots begin activating, a giant robot comes up from the ground and it is 9S who was saved in the robot network. The end?

Well, the credits roll at least. The game afterwards shows a message from the PR team that this is one ending of several and recommended to continue playing. Don't know what to think about it really. I played it on normal and the difficulty was rather descent. The harder modes where you had no lock-in function and could only take one hit seemed a bit too hard for me. Although, I felt at times I was just pushing buttons and 2B dodged hits here and there and the pods did the most damage (which makes the loss of Lock-on targeting seem like a very bad thing to lose). The chip-upgrade function I never learned so used automatic for all three (balanced, attack and defence) and used mostly Attack and Defence depending if the extra health or attack was important. The game crashed on me once, 16 hours in and after stopping the attack on Pascal's village so I had to redo the Eve fight before that since I saved just before going out to that fight (thank god for that). I might think not closing the software for that amount might have been the thing that did me in.

That was the gameplay part. It's fun playing it, but I find the environments rather boring, abandoned factory and a desert being the first part and then pretty much city ruins. Not until the forest area we get some colours back. And then the game get to the end game with the missile convoy. Also, there is basically only 4-5 enemies types as well that just gets stronger. Music's fine and it is rather interesting themes like what makes one human. Sometimes the robots seems more human than the androids even though they are supposed to be made by the aliens. Cause there is some unanswered questions in ending A. You have A2, an android deserter from YoRHa that killed the forest king of the robots and just bailed which seems to have a history with the resistance leader. Also, are the androids really made by mankind? I mean, the robots like Emil sounds like they where humans first so maybe it's that the Aliens used humans for their robots, but that has to be another playthrough I guess. And the YoRHA motto of "Glory to Mankind"? Sounds awfully facist if you ask me, so what does this mean? Is there humans or are they as dead as the aliens? Are we gonna go for a Xenoblade Chronicles X twist that the androids are the actual humans? The more I think about it, the more I feel like they are similar in so many ways, that the differences are irritating, and then X is the winner in better gameplay. For example, if I see the mountain, I could climb it in X, I just needed to find the right angle. In Nier, it is hard to know if I can jump to that platform since I'm invisible walled off from reaching it. But sometimes I'm supposed to do so since it's of the map... I really like X alright!

Another Code: Journey Into Lost Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

 

The original cover

The Sequel came to the wii in 2009 and begins 2 years after the original game and Ashley is visiting her father on a camping trip near his workplace but as soon as she gets off the buss, Richard Robins doesn't show up and a boy steals her bag. And from there it spirals away with mysterious secret agents, holograms, another ghost and a damn another... Another Machine. People gets shoot at, mass hypnosis, a company bankrupted by an evil CEO and so on. This game's story gets bonkers and it actually have less ghosts than the original. 

The boy is Matthew that have run away from his uncle to look for clues about his dad that disappeared 5 years ago. He was the CEO of a resort company that tried to develop the area around the lake that they are staying at, but got blamed for polluting the lake. Turns out that that the company Richard works for had created an Another machine that stored memories in liquid form that was polluting the lake, but the CEO covered it up by infusing memories into the townspeople so that they turned on the resort company. And Matthew was constantly... or rather from the background a couple of times, followed by a ghost who turns out to be his younger sister that he failed to save as she fell from the clock tower near the lake. That scene broke me as he learns the truth and breaks down, and then his ghost sister shows up and forgive him and that started the tears leaking and then a bright light and there mother that died in sickness shortly after the incident appears and takes the girl away and the floodgates are open. God Dammit!

That's the emotional highpoint of the game, the following part is running up and down a lab in water opening doors and such... sounds like the first Resident Evil Revelation game. It's bonkers since one of the more mysterious people in the game Ryan is revealed to be pretty much a manifestation of a boy that died 15 years ago as he was tested on by his father, the CEO to try to take him out of the PTSD that happened when his mother saved him from a car accident, but she died from that and caused Ryan to shut himself out of the world. So it's really sad, but there is a bit of botched moments. For example that father CEO, really isn't described as caring so much for his son, I gather that's how that is, but he is described by the computer Ryan that he only cared for the machine. Maybe it's hinting on the computer not getting the emotional investment the father put into it to save his son, but there is no break down scene, and the one Ryan tries to resurrect is Ashley's mother by overwriting Ashley's memories and not his father.  There's a disconnect there.

9 hours to play through so it's a bit bigger, but it's a lot more drama since there is more people around and I don't jive with that. Probably due to not connecting as well as with Matthew's emotional story. There's some stories they could have milked more, like Charlotte and her missing daughter that ran away with the photographer... I don't think we had a picture of them until the end? Come on, make me cry more damn it, make me feel something! Prove that I'm human... *ahem* Where was I? Oh yeah, overall a good collection, 16 hours total for both games. Second game was a bit harder on finding the origami cranes so I missed two of them. You really need both of them since if you haven't played them the second game gets a bit strange with the one ghost. I thought it was supposed to be more ghosts in the game, but instead we got holograms pretty much.

Read through the plot of the original version, and that seems to change dramatically, since there Ryan seems to be a real person and all is just an inheritance dispute... again. Yeah, the hologram story seems better now. Also, someone mentioned that Matthews ending wasn't part of the original game, but supposed to be a spin-off game with him as a main character, but since the company behind the game went bankrupt after this it wasn't meant to be so they pushed it in here. And it worked for me!

Another Code: Two Memories (Another Code Recollection) (Switch)

Should've known that her crying on the cover would indicate what I was gonna experience!

Continuing with the puzzle games I picked up this remake of one DS and one Wii game from the middle of the 2000's. Never played them before, but as soon I saw the trailer for them I just got a feeling I needed this. So after a month I started playing. So it start off with Ashley Mizuki Robins that the day before her 14th birthday have been invited by her father which she thought where dead to meet him on Blood Edward Island... charming name. It's an old island with a mansion and an abandoned mine where you solve puzzles... haven't I already played this game?

Well, she's there with her aunt, the aunt goes missing so Ashley has to look after her. After a moment she meets the ghost boy D that hangs around the mansion for 60 years. Together they uncover everything from D's family the Edwards that lived on the island and what Ashley's dad (Richard Robins) have been doing all along as well as the reason for Ashley's mother's death. Apparently D died by an accident as he ran from his uncle Henry that had been forced to kill D's father Thomas that in desperation tried to steal the inheritance of the family. Ashley's father meanwhile was working on a machine together with Ashley's mother, a machine called Another that was supposed to be able to erase memories in order to be able to cure PTSD and other trauma's... what ever it does, it sounds really bad for what it can be used to, creating false memories and all that. Especially when we are talking AI deepfakes and such? Of course Richard's assistant Bob was prepared to steal the machine and collaborated with someone to do so. He even killed Ashley's mother 11 years earlier.

I liked this game, it was a fun puzzler and I finished it within 7 hours. Puzzles on the easy side since you can photo anything (even though a 10 photo limit, but you can really see what you are supposed to photo). The most observant thing you have to keep looking for are these origami cranes you need to scan to get some information about Richard Robins, which I got all of them. The ending is kinda sad, but I think I foresaw it pretty early and since D's death was an accident I really can't say I felt the emotional strings being plucked so to speak. All in all I got vibes from the Famicom Detective Club and like that, there is a sequel that follows directly in this collection.

Legend of Steel Empire (Switch)

 

Flying Through the Danger Zone!

The fourth outing of Steel Empire (or known by me as Empire of Steel), the steam punk shooter where you protect the Silver Head Republic against the evil Motorhead Empire and the evil Emperor Sauron... or Styron in this version. This is a port of the 3DS version I've written about here. Not much to add here, except there is no 3D effects and that might make the game worse in parts, especially when you have foregrounds like in the cave level. Another question is why they changed the name of the game?

Still enjoyable,  the re-playability lies in finishing the achievement picture and I recall that I only had 1 piece left on the 3DS (finishing the game without losing a life on very hard), might not do all that. Finished it on easy. The only negativity I might have on this version is that the translation seems a bit off to me this time around, especially in the story text, but also the achievement text due to me unlocking pieces which I shouldn't have (and pieces I should have gotten I didn't seem to get)? I thought I at least got over a million points, but I didn't get the piece.

Small nitpicking, still the best shooter I've ever played!

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch)

 

A return to their roots.

As of writing it's the end of February and I haven't played any video games beside some levels of Super Mario Bros. Wonder when I was at my sisters place the weekend 13 days after Christmas, and before that nothing since early December. As usual I'm not too inclined to play games during this time, and usually I get over it with a puzzle game. The game for 2024 was apparently Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Nintendo Switch.

It's a remake of a 2004 GBA-game (which make it the second GBA-remake I know of after Advance Wars Switch-game) which I have two versions of on 3DS and Wii U. Never finished though. I finds that being the best thing about remakes, improvements to ease off play that actually allows me to finish them. Yes, I played casual mode that took away the timer which is new for the remake. The mode also gives you five bubbles instead of using extra lives taking some stress out of getting hit (in most levels it doesn't even hinder you from getting a gold star compared to the original). It also seems that they've added 2 set off overworlds since looking at the original it just seems to be 6 overworlds compared to the remakes 8. Since I don't intend to play through the GBA version I won't know unless I'm stuck somewhere with my 3DS and can't muster anything else to do.

Story is that one day Donkey Kong is zapping through the TV-channels when he stumbles upon a commercial for a new toy called Mini-Mario, he rushes out to get one (as the commercials message of "gotta get them all" repeats in his mind, think it's a jab at the Pokemon tagline). The stores is sold out so he rushes to the Toy Factory and steals them from the Toad workers there and Mario just happens to be there so he follows the Kong in order to get them back. He jumps and platforms his way through a set of 6 levels collecting mini-Mario's so that he can use them to collect the letters T-O-Y so that they open a chest he can put them in to get 6 hits on a boss level with Donkey Kong. Both the music and gameplay evokes the Donkey Kong arcade game and the Nintendo 8-bit series. After that you get a new set of levels and continue that for 8 overworlds to fight the big boss and then you do that all over again for the plus levels so that you can fight the final boss, Donkey Kong in a giant Kong Suit. Credits roll.

Then there is 10 extra levels that you unlock by the amount of gold stars you have, in the end I had 112, missing the boss fights. So in total. 130 levels to complete everything, but I don't feel the need to overextend my enjoyment. Took me a weekend of on-and-off play to get through it and that felt enough. A couple of days and I'm ready for something else during my half-week vacation.

Dragonsbane: The Awakening (Drakar och Demoner: Uppvaknandet)

 

Why does it have to be spiders?

As noticed, I haven't been playing games lately, but reading books. Finished up reading the collection on H.P. Lovecraft after 5 years. Interesting concepts in his stories and such, but man, it was hard reading at times. So afterwards I read through this book that is part of the new release of Sweden's own Dungeons and Dragons game, Dragonbane or Drakar och Demoner (aka Dragons and Demons, most speculate that direct translation would have been to close to actual Dungeons and Dragons). I actually bought it since it had an adventure for the game in it and I actually wanted a book in Swedish since otherwise it's just english books like Dragonlance, Jules Verne or Tolkien I have laying around and Tolkien is the only one I have some Swedish versions of, but new translation with the worse names and such. 

Still, this book was written by E.P. Uggla and follows the adventure of Tamea, a 13 year old girl that one days awakens when her tattoo begins shining and causing pain on her. She believes it has something to do with her older brother that have the same tattoo, but it causes her father to decide on marrying her away so she leaves on her own.

Also on the adventure is Verven, an half-elf, half-orc that lives on stealing from passersby that gets caught in a swamp and the assassin mallard Gizma that are looking for revenge on Tamea's brother for killing her assassin clan. So basically, no one trust each other and there is snark to go around for this group. They have to fight elf-ear collectors, spiders and avoid Tamea's bodyguard that looks to bring her back home. I enjoyed it for what it was. Easy to read and a fun adventure with the right emotional payoff in the end. Worst offender for the book is that it pretty much ends on a cliffhanger and a couple unanswered questions so I guess I have to lookout for a continuation. 

Well, that's for the story, the real worst offender (and the reason I had to write about it and get it of my chest) is that the language they use at times is atroucious to my sensibilities. Probably hard to express in english, but take for example in the early chapters they talk about "tjejer", which means girls, no problem, the problem is that is a loanword from Scandi-Romani from the 20th Centuary. It's a fantasy setting, it breaks my immersion and they used it twice. And I know it's nitpicking but I can't stop thinking about it. Another example is that they peppered the text with english words as is. One instance Verven thinks about how stupid this is that he is walking to the Vale of Mists with the exact quote (except where I censured it, gotta think of the kids) "Dimmornas f***ing dal". What are you doing? They also throw in "Fine" and "Yes"! It's probably fine in a roleplaying game table, but I'm trying to get immersed in this world and english words that come out of nowhere is kinda bothersome! I know it's petty since there is only 5 times this happened in a 200-page book, but it bothers me! Not only me, I read a blog reviewer also mentioning it!

Doesn't help that I've been listening to Prancing Pony Podcast that talks about Tolkien's world in the Silmarillion and so on, and they stress that language came first and then the world. Language forms the world and therefore the world is so easy to get lost in since it's coherent. Here they break that immersion with the language. Adding insult to injury a long time ago I myself tried writing my own fantasy world and books around it and I got stuck at the language. I deduced that since I wanted different languages, but since I wasn't a linguist I made some choices. The Gods would have closer to latin since I equated them with Romans both in dominance and appearance while the elven kind was closer to ancient greek and philosophies and such. Names reflected that and names for places and such could have different names, but the same meaning depending on who said it and so on. It makes the world more alive, and this is just the cheapest way you do it. And they didn't bother here! Hell, I began looking for different names for elves since it wouldn't jive with the languages and therefore I made them different from the elves of Tolkien or Warcraft or whatever, the language creates the world. It's the same reason there's this discourse in social media (in February 2024) about the yellow paint in game design. In visual media the design creates the world and when someone paints the ledges yellow without reason it breaks immersion. I so have the pulse on the world 1 year after the discourse that will probably die away within a week! Better throw in a Cerveza Cristal reference while I'm at it!

What a strange time on social media

Now, I ended listening to an interview with the author on youtube and she explained that apparently she had very little time for writing the book, and maybe its just an effect of that, and I can understand that. Still, one might have thought that one of the biggest book publishers in Sweden might have someone proofread and actually question some choices, but I guess the cash needs to flow and we don't have time for that (or afford it). Who cares about quality, right? She also mentioned that the second book is on it's way in august 2024 and she had more time writing it this time. Maybe it gets fixed, but since it's part of the first book that's part of the world now I guess! Yeah, 3 paragraphs for 5 words in a 200-page book might be overkill for my part. Then again, reading about the Dragonlance books (which I'm reading at the moment) someone mentioned that the harshest critics seemed to have the thoughts of "I could have written that", and truly, it might just be jealousy.

Drakborgen - Bokspelsäventyret (DungeonQuest - The Book Game Adventure)

The greatest fantasy board game Sweden ever produced! Now in book form!

Haven't been playing that much video games since Christmas 2023 (it's February as of writing, so my usual video game fatigue). So instead I've been reading books and one book I got was the choose your own adventure of the board game DungeonQuest (or Drakborgen, aka Dragon's Keep) that was released in 2023 and I got my hand on this January. Written by one of the original designers of the board game, Dan Glimne. Basically you play as an unnamed swordsman (or woman) going to the dragon's keep and trying to get your hand on some treasure and survive the ordeal.

Sounds easy enough, you generate a character, grabs some dice and head in. Dubbed my character Tyrell the Swift after my Dungeons and Dragons Bard I used in my characters backstory back in 2012... I'm feeling rather old all of a sudden. Anyway, we go in. Enter one of the towers, pass a door (since I know about the traps from the board game I stay away from there) and sees two dark elves guarding a passage, trying to ward me off. Offence is the best defence so I attack and does rather good. I continue and suddenly I'm attacked by invisible bees (?) that stung me to death. That was that, The Keep 1 - Tyrell the Swift 0.

Tyrell the Swift the second went the same way, but lets try the door this time and... Tyrell gets his hand pierced. Knew it. Well, let's continue down this corridor and.... fail the luck check by 1 and gets swallowed by a trap door, killed again. The Keep 2 - Tyrell the Swift 0

Well, Tyrell the Swift the third went back and was more lucky to notice the trap door and jump over it. Meets a mountain troll I quickly dispatches without taking a hit.  Entered a big room with a statue. A red jewel adorned the head of the statue and greed begins to flow within me... but I decide to continue. Fight a though skeleton. Fall through some stairs, find a key that I use to open a secret door that takes me to the treasure chamber! Third try baby! Of course it's Tyrell the Swift the Third that gets there!

I grab 500 gold coins and decide to get out of here. Runs through a corridor, I hear a scream at one end of a room, decides I better go on the opposite side and just runs for it. Well, I'm prompted to guess two numbers, roll the die and one of them shows up. Immediately a spike pierces the foot, the torch goes out and the character just gives up. Dying in darkness. I had to look it up and had I just rolled another number I would have gotten out. The Keep 3 - Tyrell the Swift 0.

That was fun, now I got a craving to sit with the book and chart it in excel to find the most efficient way (or maybe the one with highest probability to survival). I maxed dexterity and choose a rather high luck since I knew that in the board game it was important (apparently it didn't help Tyrell the Swift the second). I also tried to map it out with pen and paper, but after some rooms it wasn't as descriptive about if it was left or right or such things, probably mirroring the fact at the character getting more lost in the keep as the day goes on. There's 500 passages in the book and there is some fun things with the numbers like, the treasure chamber is pretty close to the middle of the book (you have gone halfway through the adventure) and that if you loose a fight against a monster, you get to passage 13 (the unlucky number) and the adventure ends. 

Only exist in Swedish as far as I can see while writing this (February 2024) so if you can't read Swedish though luck. If you can read it's rather interesting. There's also pictures in the book, mostly taken from the different cards of the games. As mentioned, the author Dan Glimne have added things that doesn't appear in the original game, like the statue for example. Haven't played these kind of book games before so I can't compare it to anything. I don't know if the character sheet and die use is that common with these kind of books, but it make it more authentic to a DnD game at least. A pity that you can't change weapon since sword is a bit of a cliché and you can't roleplay as most of the characters from the game. So go and read it if you get the chance.

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Across the Great Sea (Part 1)

 

It's no mine, it's a tomb!

And so the adventure continues. Having found the vault of dragons and getting the hand on the second piece of the rod of law they have been hooked in by Volo to travel to Chult in order to find another treasure in the jungles. They spend three days preparing the departure, getting passage with one of the traveling circus ships and loading it with Volo's books he plans to sell in Port Nyanzaru (which my middle sister realized means something like cat ape which probably is a reference to the Tibaxi catpeople who lives there). Parker has no intention of following them so he sends word to Candlekeep to his college Destinova Blackstar, forest gnome wizard that arrives to Waterdeep on the day of departure. They travel for 21 days across the ocean until the ocean where they face of the giant dragon turtle Aremag who guards the bay, who they are able to convince that they don't have any money, but he warns them that he will have an eye on them when they leave, IF they leave. They then began looking at what they had an they realized they have something like 7 000 gold each... oops!

They enter port and finds the quiet inn and see the bill board with the guides and have to decide where to go. They spend the next day gathering information on what is going on in Chult. They find the tale of the missing airship the most interesting since they see a way to get out of Chult while avoiding the dangers of Aremag. They get provisions to survive 60 days in the jungle, 2 canoes, insect repellent and four rain catchers to make the travels bearable. They also learn that they need a charter from the flaming fist in the fort up north. They decide to head there by themselves without guides since they want to save in on the fees for the guides... I told you they had 7 000 gold each right? Unbelievable cheapskates! The trip to the fort goes rather smoothly really. The only incident is when Destinova looses his rain catcher when a group of flying monkeys fly by them. They get to the fort, pay for the charter and learn that the flaming fist takes a cut of half the treasures they find which spurs them to get the airship even more as well as push away some guides since they fear they will snitch on them. 

So they head back to port, this time experiencing extreme heats causing them exhaustion several times, they find a trio of sea hags near a canoe trying to lure people near the water to drown them. Our heroes hit them with a mage hand in order to see if they really where dead, which they weren't so after that they have been haunted by the canoe over the rest of the days, so from now on the sea hags is after them. They find a tibaxi hunter that tell them to get a guide, a chwinga spirit steals Hope's crowbar and leaves a couple of nuts in exchange. They pass by a group of lizard folk and some red wizard group and a couple of dinosaurs. They only got lost twice while traveling. After a tour of 22 days they have returned to Port and decides to go with the guide Eku after Shalida gave them strange vibes. Which might speed along the game. She will probably hint them towards Nangalore and the spirit Naga and from there straight to Omu, unless they first wants the wreck of the Star Goddess. And here ended the first session.

Overall, I will probably use the excuse of the guide to heighten the encounter DC to 18-19 instead of 16 since it happens to often otherwise for such small things (especially when they don't need to level up since they already are level 9). Another thing is that I got the dungeon master screen for the game and it speeds the game along really well. A miss in accessories on the other hand seems to be the game mat maps you could buy. I thought that would help and avoid using the map in the book, but hex grid is really hard to see making it hard to count the hexes and they are a bit smaller so the little screw that represents the party is just a bit to big, but not with the map that came with the book. The city maps on the other hand in the set works really well. But it's the hex map that I would wish worked better. So if they find the airship and fix it I might let them turn it upside down so that they can see everything. But I also assume they will go the airway towards Omu and fight the gargoyles guarding the city.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

 

Clash of the Gaming Titans!

Yet another remake, this time of a Super Nintendo game, the very first Mario RPG, made by Square (now Square Enix). Originally not released in Europe until it was one of the first special Wii Virtual Console releases during a certain Japanese holiday and cost a bit more than the usual releases. I got it there and then they released it for the SNES Mini as well. Never finished either version. Only tried it on the Wii Virtual Console, but I fell asleep somewhere after the bow boss. Should probably finish it some day to see the differences from this game.

Story is that Bowser have kidnapped Princess Peach, but as Mario beats Bowser in his castle a gian sword falls from the sky and throws Mario, Bowser and Peach in different directions. Apparently the sword was sent by Smithy from Weapons land as he intends to take over the world. So Mario begins the rescue of the whole world.

First he meets Mallow a cloud boy that says he is a frog. He had a run in with a pick-pocket so you help him and you go back to his father, the frog sage that tells him that he really is adopted since the sage found him in the river so he took care of him. You also meets up with a living doll called Geno that have been possessed by a star entity to find the seven stars to restore the star road (that was smashed by the sword crashing down) so that wishes can be granted again.

I played to much D&D when this is what I think of as star entities.

You also recruit Bowser and Peach in order to stop this existential threat to the Mushroom kingdom and all others. You fight underwater shark pirates, climb to the clouds and fight off a usurper to the throne that belongs to Mallow, you traverse Star hill, fight some dwarf in a tower that tries to marry Peach and so on until you fight off Smithy in his weapon factory. Beat him and you win, a parade is shown and everyone lives happily again. 

It was a fun adventure. The changes made the game go a lot faster. For one, if you time your attacks right you get an area of effect that damage all enemies and that greatly speed up the game. I think that was what broke me last time, that I had to fight every individual enemy in a fight. You also can gather energy to a super attack with all three players in your party either do some buff or healing effect or do decent damage. Otherwise it's seems to be just graphics and music that is changed. Also they added cutscenes that was a bit more cinematic than the in-game cutscenes from the original. Interesting choice not to have any voice acting. You are able to play some post-game stuff and finish up unfinished quests, like what's behind the locked door in Monstro Town... OH NO!!!

I haven't been fooled like this since Final Fantasy V and the damn treasure chest!

Overall, I found it most enjoyable. Finally finished it for the first time. Really looking forward to the Thousand Year Door remake in 2024. Why I mention this is that the Paper Mario was the sequels to this game Nintendo made themselves and you can feel that the first Paper Mario really took a lot of the story like the seven stars and star road and incorporated it into that game. Due to the first Paper Mario being on the Switch as N64-game I have a hard time seeing that being remade. All I'm saying I got a craving for more Paper Mario. (This was of course played well before the announcement of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake)

Star Ocean 2: The Second Story R (Switch)

 

SPACE!

Got the sequel to the game Star Ocean I played something like 3-5 years ago. That one was a remaster of a PSP remake of a SNES game. This one is apparently a remake of a PS1 game. So first choice is choosing between Claude C. Kenny or Rena Lanford. I choose Claude first since he was a melee fighter. We begin in space as the space ship Calnus is investigating a planet where they found an energy signal, but the planet is abandoned. The landing party has the Admiral Ronyx J. Kenny (one of the heroes of the first game) and Claude C. Kenny. Claude gets too close to a machine that teleports him to another part of the galaxy where he lands in a forest and rescues a woman named Rena Lanford on the planet Expel. She mistakes him for the Hero of Light that with his sword of light is gonna rescue the world.

Apparently the world is having an increase in monsters and earthquakes the last 3 months since the Sorcery Globe landed on the continent of Ell. Rena was kidnapped by a suitor under the control of a stone that seems to be linked to the Globe so Claude rescue her and both of them set out to solve the mystery of the globe. On their travels they meet the wizard Selene, the unlucky warrior Ashton that is cursed with two dragon heads, the inventor Presis, the... student (?) Welch, the kid genius Leon and the zoologist Noel... I find it rather fun that the characters Leon and Noel is the names backwards.  

After travelling across two continents the gang arrive at Ell and finds a tower. Climbing it Claude finally is contacted by the Calnus that beams him up. He wants to go back, but an alarm sounds as the planet is drifting toward an energy wave that is about to pass by. Claude asks to say goodbye to his friends and back in the tower he drops his communicator and continues up the tower. There they meet the Ten Wise Men, ten individuals that seemed to be trapped in the globe and are using it now to enter the energy field in order to return to their home. Your team is dragged into the energy and find yourself on the planet Energy Nede after destroying Expel. Here you learn that the Wise Men was genetically engineered people to rule the galaxy, but defeated 100 million years ago they were trapped in space until this moment though. You get help in order to prepare against the battle and charges the Wise Men. In the confrontation they use a weapon to rule the galaxy that destroys the Calnus that hovers over the energy cloud, seemingly killing everyone aboard, including Ronyx.

Enraged Claude climbs this tower as well killing all the Wise Men, but the last one, Gabriel are preparing the Symbol of Annihilation in order to destroy the universe since he can't rule it for himself. But our heroes uses a symbol of their own that redirects the power toward Energy Nede and they are transported back to Expel as it is brought back together with its people. Endings dependent on your relationships status between characters, no hint if the Calnus was brought back as well (but I found a reference that the writer let it be up to the players to decide... so of course it came back, they didn't do anything wrong).

Overall, I liked it better than the first game. Didn't get destroyed in battles so either I'm better or I actually understood the level ups and stats progressions on the skills. 40 hours of gameplay and then it allows you to replay it again on a New Game+. Fun to start over with over 100 levels. The graphics are really nice, especially liked the water effects. And lastly, the music is made my Motoi Sakurabi, you know, the Golden Sun-composer! How can it be bad? But I start to hear the similarities between Tales of-games and this soundtrack, but you gotta love the prog synth in the dungeons. 

A DnD Tale - Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist - Wizards In Winter (Finale)

 

*SNAP*

And so begins the finale of Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist. They continue from where they last left off in this interdimensional mansion belonging to Manshoon. The first thing that happens is that the Manshoon doppelgänger melts into water. They begin raiding the place finding a room with an ice coffin, a library where they pilfer a collection of books they plan to sell and the sleeping quarter of all the dead guys where they pilfer all the items. And then they meet the big guy himself. They try to persuade him to give them the skull, I won't waste 2 months of preparations so after some awkward laughter from all involved the battle starts.

They begin in good mood as Immeral begins the charge and begins hitting him... and he just hit with a dirty 20. When they realise that they went "oh no". Then it was his turn. And I changed my way playing since we usually play it mechanically, you do this and this happens. This time I described it more, the air vibrated with unknown forces and I asked Hope's player to roll a d8 to see which character would get the blunt of the spell. She of coursed rolled a 7 which meant Parker, their cleric and only one that could raise them if they died. I cheated a bit before the game since none of the players had counterspell which meant that they couldn't stop the incoming spell, Power Word Kill, that instantly kills a person below 100 HP. So I gave Parker counterspell so they wouldn't be completely left to chance. So described that he felt something grabbing his heart and then I told them about this level 9 spell. This time they went "Oh No". And then I described Parker raising his hammer summoning the symbol of Moradin as white light as a ray of green light shot like a laser toward Parker. I asked Hope to roll a d20 and told them that to save Parker they needed a 19. Now it was "OH NO!". She rolled a 19 on the die. Parker was saved.

With that I had Parker using Death Ward on the players while Manshoon shot lightning bolts on them and the others tried to take him down. Since he was alone they wouldn't have a problem and after 3 rounds he was pretty much dead, but with the DM Fiat I let him break his staff over his knees, teleport away and sending a shock wave across the room that did 160 HP. Would have killed everyone if I hadn't Death Warded them and Parker rolled rather good on his Dex save having something like 5 HP left. Even if they are overleveled for most encounters that thaught them hopefully that they can still die. They rested up, leveled up to level 9, searched the rest of the mansion and found a ledger with names in it, Manshoons spell book and the skull. They got the rings from the dead henchmen and return to Waterdeep, bluffing their way out of the towers and back to town. They get the rest of the skulls and uses them to get to the Vault of Dragons. 

I sped through here as well by describing much what happened. As they opened a door Parker gets charmed by a Fresco so he can't leave... so Freya got to use countercharm for the first time, singing a rendition of Hellfire from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. They get to the second floor and the three bridges. As they cross the middle bridge Parker, Hope and Immeral jumped over while Freya rolled a 1 and fell down in the hole. Immeral, being now able run up walls jumped after her while Hope threw a rope toward them. Immeral misses, but Freya is able to grab his leg while Hope and Parker pulled them up. They get in, solve the puzzles and get to the vault and meet the dwarf protector. And since they only want a piece of a staff they get it and leave... and Freya once again rolls a 1 on the jump, and this time Parker hangs from the other side. Hope pulls Parker while Immeral, again tries to grab Freya... and misses again. Freya has to save herself and throws a rope toward Hope and Parker is able to roll a 20 to stop Hope from falling backwards and let Freya do a pendulum swing with the rope so that they all arrives on the right side of the bridge. 

They leave and on the way out they are stopped by Jarlaxle and his troops as he arrives on order of the Open Lord of Waterdeep, They give the spellbook to them, they get 50 000 gold from the Open Lord and then they leave. They go back to the pub and goes to bed. they have a dream of Mishka within his spider cocoon as they see his face in it. The next day they get visitors that need payment so they loose 20 000 gold at once, begin selling everything and as they open the pub again all the people they met are their until Volo comes by with a treasure map to an jungle island where they will find the third piece of the rod of rule. The End!

We will continue in February of 2024. Maybe it overstayed it's welcome, but I believe it more has to do with not playing as much as we did before the third sister joined. Now it might be 9 times a year when we got something like 12-18 sessions a year before. Had we played more often I might have went through with playing all dungeons (we skipped Jaraxle) and maybe have more pub adventures, but now it was to get the story going. Need to read through Tomb of Annihilation and create a new DMPC to help them around, don't know if a wizard, warlock or ranger is the thing to go. Need magic to balance the team, but a ranger might be easier to explain in game... of course, reading through the book it's probably use the guides mentioned, let the players make the decision. And now the final parting words of the session:

Will our heroes find the third piece before the Spider-Demon is released?

Will they survive in the Jungles of Chult!

Will Immeral find a were-Tiger to be bitten by?

Find out in "Tomb of Annihilation", unknown time, same blog!

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Metal Gear Solid Master Collection vol. 1) (Switch)

 

Someday you go through the rain
Someday you feed on a tree frog
This ordeal, the trial to survive
For the day we see new life! I give my life
Not for honor, but for you
Snake eater
In my time there'll be no one else
Crime, it's the way I fly to you
Snake eater
I'm still in a dream, snake eater!

The last of the PS2 duology of Metal Gear Solid-games. Wrote about it back in 2017 and probably haven't played it since then. Would have gotten the 3DS version if they hadn't pulled it from the 3DS eShop before taking the whole store down. Same story, Naked Snake is sent into the Soviet Union to extract a scientist named Sokolov that have worked on the secret weapon that will be able to launch nukes all over the globes. But Snake is betrayed by the Boss, the special forces commander that taught him everything so he has to get back, rescue Sokolov, destroy the weapon and kill the boss.

Quite the departure from the other Solid games since we now are mostly outdoors and that the main mechanic is using the camo to hide and take your time. Hunt and get resources. And they are as of writing in late 2023 on the way to remake the game for modern consoles (non-Nintendo that is). Don't know why since it still looks good. Snake looks his best here and actually have facial expressions, which makes Big Boss the most fun Snake to watch. That it has homages to James Bond movies is rather fun as well. 

It had other interesting ideas like the fight with the Sorrow. He basically sends the souls of all enemies you've killed along a river you have to walk through, so the more you killed the harder that section is (if you don't do the easy way out by drowning yourself to force the to be continue screen in order to use the revive pill). I recall I didn't kill anyone when playing my PS3, but here I killed a lot more people and the bosses (the bosses especially since I was just tired of them at this point, especially when the Fear constantly regained stamina for some reason). I think it was a reference to the part in the first Metal Gear Solid when Liquid says Snake enjoys the killing... and I know in one playthrough I didn't kill anyone making the comment really weird.

Works perfect on switch, load times seems to be minimal compared to the PS3 version making this an optimal version to play. Missing the trophies though when you have things like the frogs that doesn't do anything I guess... or maybe there is a camo you will get, but it would be nice with an indicator.

A Dnd Tale - Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist - Castle Between Dimensions

 

A bit more purple and it might be Manshoon's place!

Continuing the story, I've went away from the original idea to let them fight through the last two lairs. Mostly because I'm beginning to bore on the setting, after two years and nothing happening pretty much does it for me. So I scrapped the Jarlaxle chapter and let them stalk out the docks. They get the submarine and discovers that the main circus ship has something attached to it so they intend to sneak aboard by putting a boat atop their submarine as a decoy. They go to the fisherman that took them to the dragon in the bay and begin to haggle with him to buy his boat. While Freya and the fisherman haggle Immeral tries to help the negotiations by poking a hole in the boat in order get him to lower the price. His spear is stuck on the boat and as he tries to get the spear out Freya begins to raise her voice to sound really upset so that the fisherman is distracted. Immeral gets the spear of the boat by rolling a 1 and throwing it into the water and falling in himself. In the end they get it for 200 gold and dinner for seven.

They then spend the rest of the week modifying the ship to have an air lock to their submarine. As they  finish and have a day off, they sail out in the night and as they approach the ship a fog appears in the bay. Hope that steers the contraption sees that the submarine beneath the ship detach and going toward the docks, so they change plan and follow. They sneak near the sub and as it resurface three drows emerges and goes toward an ally. Our heroes split up with Parker and Freya hiding at the entrance of the ally while Immeral and Hope goes up on the roof and watches the group. The drows have the silver skull and leaves it in the middle on the ground together with a letter and then disappears. Immeral, seeing no one jumps down to get the skull, but an invisible person uses Timestop, picks up the skull and appears before him. It's Laerel Silverhand, the open lord of Waterdeep. After a bit of talking where it becomes clear that they just looks for the part of the rod and not the 500 000 dragons, she gives them the key and the information where to find the last key, in the Kolat Towers. 

They hide the skull back at their pub and then they try to enter the towers. They use a charge of dispel magic to pass through the shield around them. Hope investigates the windows and openings and tell the others where the people are. They decide to use the same tactic as they used in the Xenathar lair, just walk in. Freya leads them and roll high enough that the first group just accept it and takes them to the teleport circle in order to send them to a castle between dimensions where their leader is. As they arrive they don't care about the voice that tells them to wait for the master to arrive so they walk in to the next room and start looking around. The Master arrives and they just begin bluffing as much as possible, until Ustrul Floxin appear, the person they fought back at the Graalhound villa. He screams at them, sets of an alarm and a battle starts as from every door henchmen of the Zhentarim appears. A tough battle, but they win and with that have reached level 9, which have to wait till the next long rest.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Metal Gear Solid Master Collection vol. 1) (Switch)

 

I give my life
Not for honor, but for you
Snake eater
In my time there'll be no one else
Crime, it's the way I fly to you
Snake eater
I'm still in a dream, snake eater!

Continued with the second game and last time playing was 8 years ago. Funny enough that post have been limited due to sensitive content... I think it's due to writing the T-word, but it might just be the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo trying to stop the spoilers being exposed. Anyway, same story and it feels more current than ever. We have discussions about AI that flood the internet with images and movies and whatnot and then we have the EU:s law for Chat Control (proposed by the Swedish commissioner no less) that feels like a first step in monitoring every conversation and then erase unwanted information, just like the plan the Patriots have for GW. So the political and social implications regarding the internet and everything they hint at actually come true, how people create their own filter bubbles and how truth distorts itself around them to fit their beliefs and so on. It's rather chilling.

But how is the game? Still good. Funny how Kojima once again copied the Snake Plissken movies by doing pretty much the same game again, but with added meta commentary why they are alike. Sad a third "Escape from" movie wasn't released. Maybe that I find the Plant-stage rather boring in comparison to the military base at Shadow Moses that I might prefer the first game. It might also be due to Raiden and his bickering girlfriend, I get that it build character, but how often can you hear the question "do you know what day tomorrow is?" without getting irritating? In the tanker you at least has Otacon that is tolerable.

So, PS3 or Switch? Well, I will probably play more on the Switch since it's a hassle to start the PS3 and get the controllers charged up so that you can play on the sofa. But... the trophy system tells you some things you can do, like take photos of the ghosts since they point it out and there is really no hint about it in the Switch version so that is maybe just guides. Then again, it's just for bragging rights and no actual benefit for the gameplay what I know. A bit of a long load time entering Codec-conversations though, I assume it has to do with the 3d-animation of the characters cause there was no problem with it in the first game.